The Death Eaters book club The first book
by yellow 14
Summary: Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are invited to read a very special set of books. A response to a challenge by Terapsina.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: This is a response to Terapsina's challenge. I'll explain more at the end of this chapter.

"Are you sure about this Pettigrew? The Potters are where you say?" Voldemort asked and Peter nodded.

"Yes my Lord. The Potters have made me their secret keeper."

"You have done well Pettigrew and you shall be rewarded on my return." Voldemort continued in a hissing voice. There was a sudden crack and suddenly Bellatrix Lestrange crashed onto the table, but before she could say anything, there was another crack and another and another.

In the middle of the room, on the large dining table in the Malfoy dining room sat several very confused Death Eaters and a couple of allies.

"What are you doing here?" Voldemort hissed angrily. He turned to Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Junior. "You are supposed to be hunting the Longbottom's." He then turned to face Fenrir Greyback. "You are supposed to be paying a visit to those filthy blood traitors who are considering joining the fight against us." Finally, Voldemort turned to face Lucius. "And you, Lucius my slippery friend, are meant to be at the Ministry."

"I-I do not know how I came to be here Master." Lucius stuttered out as he sweated under Voldemort's glare.

"Master, forgive us!" Bellatrix screeched. "Clearly there were protections that we did not realise!"

"Or perhaps a greater force brought you here for a reason?" a deep voice boomed out. Voldemort and his assembled Death Eaters looked up and around the room, but there was no one there.

"I am Lord Voldemort! There is no greater power!" Voldemort shouted angrily.

"My Lord is the greatest Dark Wizard to ever grace the wizarding world!" Bellatrix added angrily. "Show yourself!"

"But then I think you would probably try killing me." The voice said calmly. "That would be a nuisance. Especially as I'm trying to help you."

"You wish to become one of my servants?" Voldemort asked and the voice laughed.

"Now that sounds like a very interesting idea! But no, I am not here to become one of your servants."

"Master, let m-" Voldemort held up his hand to silence Bellatrix.

"I like your philosophy and style, but if you continue the way you are, you're going to lose." The voice continued.

"Impossible!" Voldemort screeched at the ceiling.

"Show yourself worm and I will feed on your flesh!" Greyback howled.

"As pleasant as that sounds, I suspect you would be using your time better if you were to open up one of these books-" there was a flash and a set of seven brightly coloured books appeared on the table. "You should find them…most illuminating."

Lucius walked over and picked up the first book.

"Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone." He read out loud with disgust. "Urgh, it's so…garish." He sneered.

"You can't leave the room until you have read all seven books." The voice said conversationally. "Don't worry, no time will pass while you're reading them."

Greyback threw himself at the door with all of his might. He bounced off. Bellatrix starting shooting curses at the windows and Barty Crouch Junior tried apparatting. Peter turned into his rat form and searched the walls for possible ways out. (it also helped him dodge the crazy amount of spells flying from Bellatrix.)

"Enough!" Voldemort bellowed. He turned to Lucius. "Will you begin reading the first book to us Lucius?"

"But-"

"If whoever did this wanted to harm us, they could have done so already." Voldemort pointed out. "Start reading."

Lucius gave Voldemort a brief, doubting look and picked up the first book. He opened the first page and began to read aloud.

AN: Yes it's one of those clichéd Reading the books series that pop up all over fanfiction. Much as I love them, they are all over the HP site and frankly it seems to be a rather lazy exercise. (Some more unoriginal authors seem to be unable to move beyond this particular idea.) It wasn't until I discovered this challenge that I thought it might be worth doing.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own and never will. Understand?

"**Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone" **Lucius read out loud and sneered. "Who would want to read about them?"

"Harry. That's the name of the Potters child, is it not Wormtail?" Voldemort asked in a low voice and Peter nodded.

"Yes my Lord."

"Continue, it may be worth seeing more." Greyback hissed, licking his lips in anticipation. "I do so love children."

"We are all aware of how much you 'love' children Greyback!" Lucius hissed angrily, his mind immediately rushing to his own son Draco. Greyback gave him a predatory grin.

"Oh yes Mister Malfoy. How is little Draco doing these days?" he taunted, but as Lucius drew his wand, Lord Voldemort cut in.

"Greyback old friend, we will have plenty of suitable victims for you. Continue Lucius."

"**The Boy Who Lived**"

"Obviously not the same Harry Potter." giggled Bellatrix. "No mere child could survive my Master."

"Unless you have lied to me Wormtail." Voldemort added with a hiss. "If you have, I will make you regret it."

"I told you the truth!" Peter protested fearfully. "They have not guessed that I am truly yours!"

"Very well then. Continue Lucius."

"**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved with anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**"

"Muggles." Voldemort sneered contemptuously. "Hardly worth our time. Why would anyone want to read about them?"

"If these muggles exist, may we have a bit of fun with them? After dealing with the Longbottoms of course." Bartemius Crouch Junior asked with a gleam in his eye. Voldemort resisted the urge to smile. Young Crouch was quickly shaping up to be a valuable asset.

"You may Crouch. Take Bella with you, I think she'd enjoy a little sport with these creatures." He replied. "But first we must finish these books and get out of this room. Continue Lucius,"

"**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills**" Lucius paused. "What's a drill?"

"Why in Merlin do you think any of us know?" Bartemius snapped. "It's not like any of us associate with that filth." Shrugging, Lucius continued.

**"He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent most of her time craning over garden fences, spying on neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere."**

"YOUR BOY IS WORTHLESS!" Bellatrix screamed at the book. "WORTHLESS YOU FILTHY MUGGLES!"

"I think I should try and…improve him." Greyback added, licking his lips. "Yes, yes a new addition to my pack."

"I fail to see the relevance of these people." Voldemort hissed. He pointed his wand at the book and Lucius put it down. "Incendio!" he yelled. Flames licked around the book, but the book itself remained unharmed. As the fire burned itself out, Lucius picked up the book. It was still cool.

"You should stop trying to get out of reading these books and READ them." The mystery voice said in a slightly annoyed tone. "You can't destroy the books or harm them in any way, shape or form." There was silence as almost every person in the room glared at the ceiling.

"Show yourself!" Voldemort demanded and the voice sighed.

"Honestly, this is like herding cats. Listen, just read the damn books and all will become clear." Lucius picked up the book and started reading once more.

**"The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters."**

"At last! Something that's actually relevant!" Crouch exclaimed melodramatically. Lucius sighed and continued reading.

**"Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and good-for-nothing husband"**

"She hasn't met my cousin." Bellatrix hissed.

"At least your cousin isn't a filthy little mudblood!" Crouch pointed out. "And she's right about the Potters. A filthy contamination of our blood."

**"were as unDursleyish"** Lucius paused for a moment. "Is that even a word?" he asked, before continuing. "**as it is possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**"

"What wizarding parent would allow their child to play with such inferior beings?" Lucius asked snottily. "The Weasleys might sink that low, but I would never allow my Draco to associate with filth like that."

"When I was one, I tried cursing my first mudblood!" Bellatrix bragged triumphantly.

"That's a good reason for muggles. Target practice." Crouch added with a smirk.

"Oh yes, the fear in their eyes when they see me." Greyback finished with a smirk and Lucius shuddered at the thought of Greyback getting anywhere near his Draco. Deciding to change the subject, Lucius continued reading.

"**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**"

"As if you'd recognise something genuinely strange and mysterious." Voldemort snorted. Lucius continued.

"**None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.**"

"They're muggles. They wouldn't notice anything." Bellatrix sneered.

"A bit like you then, my lady." Greyback countered with a smirk.

"You should watch who you insult Mutt!"

"I could always give you a bite." Greyback continued with a lick of his lips. "It wouldn't hurt much."

"Don't you da-"

"Enough!" Voldemort interrupted. "We have no time for this petty bickering. Continue Lucius."

"**At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. 'Little tyke,' chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**"

This was met by even more puzzled stares. Sensing another set of questions, Lucius quickly pressed on, this stupid muggle brat reminded him slightly of his dear Draco. "**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar-a cat reading a map."**

"Professor McGonagol." Peter muttered, his eyes twitching slightly. He hated cats, especially after one had tried to eat him as a rat.

"Does this mean we're allowed to start killing cats as well?" Bellatrix asked with a cackle. Fenrir grinned.

"It might be worth considering my Lord." He added. Voldemort shook his head.

"A waste of a good spell." He said firmly. "Although there's nothing to stop you doing what you deem…necessary." Bellatrix cackled and Lucius continued.

"**For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realise what he had seen-then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.**"

"Stupid muggle." Lucius hissed. "Wouldn't recognise what's under his very nose if it stood up and bowed."

"Just a bunch of dumb animals." Bellatrix added in agreement. "Yet further proof of our superiority."

"What could he have been thinking of?" Lucius paused and sneered. "As though you would be capable of thinking." Lucius continued reading.

"**It must have been a trick of the light. Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said _Privet Drive_-no, _looking _at the sign; cats couldn't read maps _or _signs. Mr Dursley gave himself gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**"

"Such small-people, living small lives, when there is so much greater things to be achieved." Voldemort hissed. "Little wonder that nature made us the superior species."

There were nods of agreement all round. Lucius continued reading out loud.

"**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the morning traffic jam,**" Lucius paused once more. "Another clear sign of their inferiority. You don't get traffic with apparition. And why would you make a jam out of it?" with a look of distaste, he pressed on."**he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about.**"

"Humph! You muggles dress strangely, not us!" Bellatrix snapped.

"Why are we in the open?" Barty Crouch Junior asked curiously.

"We have obviously come out. This is the glorious day in which we take control of the muggle world," Bellatrix screeched excitedly.

"But why aren't the muggles running in fear" Barty continued. "I don't like this, they're far too calm."

"No doubt they are too stupid to realise what's happening yet." Lucius suggested disdainfully. "They ARE muggles, after all."

"Well read on, I want to see those muggles cowering in fear!" Barty screeched excitedly, his eyes lit up with happiness and Bellatrix nodded with a smile.

"Yes, lets!" she added. "Look at the ickle muggles, wunning for their lives." She finished mockingly. Lucius continued.

"**People in cloaks. Mr Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes-the get-ups you saw on some young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**"

"Why are you whispering!" Bellatrix yelled angrily at the book. "You should be shouting, laughing, throwing curses left and right! Terrify those foolish muggles!"

"Bella, it's a book. They can't hear you." Greyback said in a mockingly calm voice.

"Don't you DARE call me Bella, you filthy animal!" she hissed angrily, pulling out her wand. "Or I will make you wish you'd never been born."

Greyback growled back, baring his teeth and Voldemort resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"This bickering is pointless!" he snapped angrily. "Greyback, Bellatrix, you both serve me. Do not test my patience any further!"

"Yes Master. Forgive us please." They both said simultaneously, much to the amusement of the others. Lucius decided to continue.

"**Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why that man had had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak!**"

"What's so strange about that?" Barty asked curiously.

"It's not normal by muggle standards." Greyback said with a wistful look. "I wish it was, it would make feasting a lot easier. All those annoying fibres they put in their clothes get caught up in my teeth." Lucius gave a look of disgust and continued reading.

"**The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt-these people were obviously collecting for something…yes that would be it. The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills. Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to focus on drills that morning. _He_didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though most people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time.**"

"How do they get their post? Or is it simply a case of giving them too much credit to have letters?" Lucius asked snootishly.

"Muggles are simply too primitive to use owls." Voldemort declared calmly. "They have to use people."

"And the Order call US barbaric." Barty Crouch Junior muttered under his breath. Lucius continued once more.

"**Mr Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several very important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite. He'd forgotten about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed.**"

The group glared the book with a mixture of anger and contempt.

"**He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin.**" Voldemort felt a twinge of uneasiness run up his spine as another possibility occurred to him. What if the reason that the wizards were being so careless was that he had been defeated?

"**It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying. 'The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard-' '-yes, their son, Harry-'**

**Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. **

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid.**"

"You're a muggle, that is practically a given." Lucius said in a bored tone.

"Ahhh, does the wittle muggle feel scared? Wittle muggle should." Bellatrix cooed in a distinctly scary manner. Lucius continued to read.

"**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

"I would happily rectify the existence of her sister." Voldemort growled slightly.

"Yes, she has corrupted an old pure-blood line that is far too good for the likes of her." Lucius added with a grimace. The others turned to look at him.

"Their family is a bunch of blood-traitors, what does it matter to you? Bellatrix asked curiously.

"So is mine." Barty Crouch Junior pointed out. "And yet here I am."

"And whenever one of us sees the light, we grow stronger." Voldemort added softly.

"Forgive me master, I lack your wisdom." Bellatrix cried, throwing herself down to his feet.

"You are forgiven Bellatrix. It is why I am your leader. Continue Lucius."

"Lucius cleared his throat and continued.

"**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted** **as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"WHAT!" Bellatrix shrieked out loudly.

"Impossible!" Barty yelled in surprise. "What could possibly defeat you master?"

"Obviously, Dumbledore has set up a trap at the Potters house." Voldemort growled. "Did you know of this Wormtail?"

"N-n-no m-m-master, I swear, the Potters and the Order believe that I am on their side, I swear it."

"Then they are not aware that I will be there." Voldemort finished coldly.

"If Dumbledore is there and he manages to kill our master, I will personally kill you myself." Bellatrix hissed angrily.

"He won't!" Peter protested shrilly. "If he is, it's not something I knew about!"

"Because if this is a trap, I will make you beg for death by the time I've finished with you." Bellatrix told him in a scarily calm voice.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off. Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"Did he just say that he disapproved of imagination?" Barty asked in disbelief. Lucius nodded.

"Another example of muggle stupidity," he sneered.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"Definitely McGonagall," Peter said. "Who else would sit like that?"

"Why didn't she just change and given him a few crucios?" Bellatrix wondered idly. "I most certainly would have done."

"McGonagall is one of those misguided fools who ally themselves with Dumbledore and his foolish ideals," Voldemort sneered. "No real wizarding pride at all."

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Shan't!").**

Luciuspaused for a moment as he remembered that Draco had learned that very same word earlier that day, before continuing.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

"FOOLS! YOU SHOULD NOT BE CELEBRATING! MY MASTER WILL RETURN!" Bellatrix screamed at the book.

"Your confidence Bella, is not misplaced," Voldemort murmured. "Your faith is an example to all witches and wizards."

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. **

**"Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

"A filthy, good-for-nothing mudblood!" Peter hissed with surprising venom.

"Urgh, to think of the contamination that filthy creature has already done, bearing the child from such an illustrious line." Bellatrix hissed

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"And if I had you for a sister, I would kill you simply for polluting my lineage!" Bellatrix hissed.

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

"We're not the ones who dress funny!" Greyback yelled. "At least wizards dress in something that doesn't get caught in my teeth!"

"You should save your appetites for those who fight us Greyback," Voldemort commented dryly. "Perhaps that would save your teeth."

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her lot."**

"HER LOT!" Bellatrix bellowed. "HOW DARE YOU!"

"He is nothing to be proud of," Lucius sniffed.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

Lucius's face wrinkled up in disgust. He had actually AGREED with that filthy muggle!

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"She doesn't want to be related to a filthy little thief!" Bellatrix snapped at the book.

"As if any self-respecting witch or wizard would admit to being related to an animal like that." Voldemort hissed.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on - he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect them...**

**How very wrong he was.**

"Especially if I give their son a little nip," Greyback added with a smirk.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"Animagus, definitely," the group commented as one.

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.**

"Dumbledore!" Voldemort hissed angrily and Greyback growled at the book. Lucius gave him a nervous look and drew his wand.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

Lucius had to pause for a moment as the room was filled with disgusted hisses from the group.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"As if you know the depths of knowledge to which I have delved," Voldemort hissed.

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop**

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement.**

"Humph! Those stupid muggles wouldn't notice what goes on under their very nose," Barty Crouch Junior sneered. There were nods of agreement around the table.

**Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Told you so!" Peter crowed triumphantly.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"I'm almost impressed. What an asset to our cause she would make," Voldemort said sarcastically.

"Sitting on walls and waiting is a useful skill to a predator like myself my Lord," Greyback pointed out in a respectful voice. "If we catch her, can I give her a nip as well?"

"I think I should just have a bit of fun with her," Bellatrix cackled.

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"I should kill him for that," Bellatrix hissed angrily.

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"We've had plenty to celebrate!" Bellatrix protested. "WE WERE WINNING YOU FOOL!"

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day YouKnow-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"A what?" Lucius asked.

**"A what?"**

Lucius looked affronted as McGonagol repeated what he had just said.

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"**

"Muggle sweets!" Bellatrix hissed.

"No wizarding pride at all!" Crouch added angrily.

"Typical behaviour of that muggle-loving fool," Voldemort finished in a low voice.

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."**

"They fear my masters name for good reason!" Bellatrix yelled angrily. "He is the greatest dark wizard ever to have walked this planet and will purge us of the filth that floods our world!"

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"One day, I will give you reason," Voldemort hissed. "and you will know my power."

**"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"My mastery of the dark arts surpasses anything you could possibly know." Voldemort hissed.

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

"Too foolish you mean!" Bellatrix said with a smirk.

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Why are you scared of this madman master? He's clearly past it?" Bellatrix asked. Voldemort glared at her and she recoiled.

"Do not be fooled by his manner, my dear Bella. Underneath that jokers façade lies an impressive mind and formidable power," Voldemort answered calmly.

"A lot like the hunt. Prey sometimes pretends to be weaker than it is, so to catch the predator by surprise and escape," Greyback added and his stomach growled. "I wonder if there's anything to eat?"

A plate of steaks appeared on the table, while tea and biscuits appeared in front of the others.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

"What is it?" Crouch asked curiously. "What could it possibly be?"

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow.** **He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead. "**

This news was met by cheering from around the table. The Potters were not well liked by this group.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."**

"Nobody escapes from me forever, you should know that," Voldemort gloated.

"To oppose us is to die," Lucius added regally.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.** **But – he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Bellatrix screamed. "NO MERE BABY IS A MATCH FOR MY LORD!"

"Whoever wrote this must be out of their mind!" Crouch added angrily.

"How DARE they suggest such a thing!" Greyback exclaimed at the same time.

"I will personally kill the writer of such slanderous tripe," Voldemort hissed.

"The book is clearly arrant nonsense my lord," Lucius said contemptuously. "Surely no-one is foolish enough to believe it."

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"But you suspect," Voldemort said. "You suspect."

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

Voldemort resisted the urge to snort. Only an old fool like Dumbledore would trust Hagrid.

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"You would leave him with THOSE animals!" Bellatrix screeched in surprise. "You might as well leave him to be raised by pigs!"

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four.**

"For once, I am in perfect agreement with McGonagol," Crouch said with a sniff.

"I'm sure he would be better placed with me," Greyback added with a glint in his eye and Lucius gave a little shudder.

**"Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"I'm surprised that he thinks crude animals like that can even understand the idea of words!" Crouch snapped angrily.

"If anyone needed further proof that Dumbledore is an old fool, that is it," Lucius added with a look of distaste.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous – a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Yes they will. But not for defeating me," Voldemort murmured.

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

Peter mentally nodded. If Harry was anything like James, then his arrogance would be unsurpassed.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"Why would you trust that oaf with a child?" Voldemort asked. "Surely you are not that far gone, old man."

"Perhaps he is genuinely losing it," Lucius suggested.

**"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"It seems that McGonagol agrees with you master. I see she has that much wisdom, even if she is a stupid mudblood-lover," Bellatrix said and Voldemort smiled at her.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

"A clumsy oaf, with few brains and an impure bloodline contaminated by giant blood," Voldemort hissed.

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Doesn't your cousin have a bike that flies Bella?" Lucius asked and Bellatrix frowned.

"DON'T MENTION MY BLOOD-TRAITOR COUSIN TO ME! HE IS NO RELATION!" she yelled.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it.**

**He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild – long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"He is too big to be allowed," Voldemort sniffed. "He shouldn't even exist, an abomination and corruption of good wizarding stock."

"And if his father had had any wizarding pride, he would have simply killed him at birth!" Bellatrix added.

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"I would have loved to have seen his face when he saw the ruins," Peter cackled. "He wouldn't be laughing at me then!"

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep.**

"He'll be in Draco's year at Hogwart's, won't he?" Bellatrix suddenly asked and Lucius nodded.

"Yes, I suppose he would be," Lucius replied and a nasty expression came over Bellatrix's face. "My son is not for you to turn into one of your pet projects Bella."

"But-"

"No." Lucius said with a cast-iron firmness.

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

**"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground."**

"Really? Why would anyone find that useful?" Peter asked.

"What wizard would bother with-" Crouch paused as he looked at the page. "London Underground? It's crazy!"

"**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"I wouldn't expect anything else from contaminated filth like that," Bellatrix hissed contemptuously.

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"**

"Why would you want to cower away from these worthless creatures?" Bellatrix asked. "You should just have a bit of fun with them."

"We should make them understand their betters," Crouch added with a smirk.

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

"No, what's sad is that our master is gone," Crouch said with a frown. "Who cares about the deaths of a blood-traitor and a mudblood?"

"Good riddance to them both," Lucius added with a sneer.

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"He just left him there?" Lucius asked incredulously. "Anything could happen!"

"Yes, yes. I wish more people would leave babies on the doorsteps of strangers homes," Greyback said dreamily as he licked his lips. "Such delicious young flesh for biting."

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

"If Sirus was a true Black, he'd kill that oaf for simply being anywhere near him," Bellatrix lamented.

"We all have our share of deviants. It's up to us to trim such rotten branches," Crouch said sympathetically.

"Yes, and we must trim that particular branch of your family tree," Voldemort said with a nod.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

Greyback licked his lips at the thought. A little wizard child, just ripe for biting.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"No, Harry Potter, the boy who died!" Bellatrix hissed. "What in Merlin's name does this delusional author think they're writing about?"

"Well perhaps you would care to read the next chapter, Bella dearest?" Lucius asked sardonically, offering her the book. Sensing the challenge in his voice, Bellatrix took the book and started to read.

AN3: This is harder than I thought. The muse wants to be creative and this doesn't feel creative. For the record, I've borrowed someone else's copy of the book from one of the many 'reading the books' series.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: You know the drill by now.

**CHAPTER TWO**

**THE VANISHING GLASS**

"Accidental magic," Lucius commented in a bored voice. "Why should we care?"

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.

"Typical muggles, too stupid to make any difference," Bellatrix sneered.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.**

"As if the photographs of muggles are worth showing!" Bellatrix sneered.

"What on Earth could they have that is worth showing?" Lucius asked. "They are muggles, with the son of a mudblood and a blood-traitor living with them, what have they to be proud of?"

**Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,**

This was met by a series of derisive laughs.

"Yet another example of our superiority," Voldemort said in a low voice. "Those animals clearly have no idea how to look after a child properly."

**and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"WHAT!" Bellatrix screamed.

"You have a WIZARD living under your roof, a far superior being to you in every way and you don't acknowledge him?" Lucius asked with surprise.

"They know what hunts him," Greyback said firmly. "I must be on the prowl and they seek to avoid giving me any sign that he's there."

"Really?" Lucius asked and Greyback nodded.

"It doesn't work though," he added, "I am VERY good at what I do."

"Or maybe my little traitorous cousin has already saved him," Bellatrix continued. "He always did have a bad choice of sides."

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"How dare she order a wizard about like that!" Bellatrix screeched as she whipped out her wand and hit the book with a variety of curses and Lucius ducked behind the book so fast he practically clicked his neck.

"She shouldn't be dong that to James's son," Peter muttered under his breath.

"Really, little rat?" Greyback asked and Peter winced uncomfortably under the wolves gaze.

"No child with the blood of a pure-blood should be ordered around like that!" he protested shrilly. "Truly, I am loyal!"

"You had better be, or I will make you regret it Wormtail," Voldemort warned in a low voice.

"I swear, I am loyal!" Peter protested, practically screaming now and Voldemort smirked at Peter's response.

"Continue Lucius," he said with a wave of his wand.

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. "Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Dreams are just another lie to betray you," Crouch muttered bitterly. "You should stop dwelling on them."

"Oh I don't know…MY dreams tend to be more…fulfilling," Greyback said with a smirk.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"A HOUSE ELF!THEY'RE TREATING A WIZARD LIKE A HOUSE_ELF! HOW DARE THEY!" Bellatrix screamed and Greyback winced.

"We're not all as deaf as you Bella," he said and Bellatrix pointed her wand at him.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that animal," she hissed angrily.

"A rather suitable punishment for us to apply to mudbloods and those who have supposedly defeated me," Voldemort mused with a cold smile. "Something we will have to look at Lucius my old friend. And you will use your Ministry contacts to help, perhaps in the department of mysteries, my dear Bartemius."

"Yes my Lord, a truly…fitting punishment," Lucius replied with a smile, while Barty's eyes gleamed as he imagined the scope he would have to experiment with slaves like that.

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

**"Nothing, nothing..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten?**

"Because he's a worthless muggle who should mean nothing to you perhaps?" Lucius suggested.

"Perhaps I should make his birthday one to remember?" Bellatrix suggested with a mad gleam in her eye.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"Give me five minutes with them…" Crouch murmured under his breath. "They make my dear old dad seem almost human."

Voldemort suppressed a look of distaste. These muggles were as bad as the ones he grew up with. How DARE they treat a wizard like that! Bellatrix meanwhile was fingering her wand dangerously and even Lucius was clearly having difficulty keeping his calm.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. **

"Don't ask, I don't know either," Lucius said as he saw the others open their mouths.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. **

"I could quickly solve his…problem with exercise," Greyback said with a smirk as he licked his lips. "I certainly wouldn't allow a member of my pack become so fat."

"What do you expect from such filthy animals? It's a wonder that they don't wallow about like pigs," Crouch commented.

**Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"I am DEFINITELY going to pay these stupid animals a visit," Bellatrix growled under her breath. Lucius kept a very close eye on her, ready to dive out of the way should his sister-in-law start throwing spells. He really did not like the looks that Bellatrix was shooting at the book.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. **

"Nope, that's just a Potter family trait," Peter said nonchantly.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"I hate baggy clothes, they make people so much harder to bite," Greyback grumbled.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.**

"Just like James…" Peter murmured under his breath and Greyback gave him another curious look. When this was over, he was going to have words with Peter.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

"Turn him into a pig, you stupid excuse for a wizard!" Bellatrix screeched at the book.

"If it had been me at that age, I would have made him regret it. Vividly." Voldemort growled.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"A mark he should be proud of," Lucius murmured with amusement. "It's the only sign that you're a wizard at all, with all the filth running through your veins."

"I'm sure that I could add a few," Greyback said with a smirk. "Please master, allow me to have a go with him."

"We shall see Greyback, but remember that I alone will kill him," Voldemort said firmly.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"What exactly is a car?" Crouch asked curiously.

"Some muggle contraption. Obviously no match for any real wizard," Lucius said with a desultory wave of his hand.

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

Voldemort glared at the book angrily. Even Mrs Cole wasn't so bad!

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"He's definitely a Potter," Peter muttered. "Nothing beats that stupid hair."

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"Looking like a pig," Lucius commented dryly. Greyback was licking his lips and a predatory look settled over his eyes.

"I wonder if he'd squeal like one while I ate him?" he asked. "There was one muggle who…" Greyback's eyes misted over as he lost himself in memories of meals past. Lucius shuddered and continued.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

"Proving that even a Potter can be right once in a blue moon," Crouch said with a smirk and Lucius glared.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"I'm surprised an animal like that can count that high," Lucius drawled. "What fool would think these creatures capable of achieving anything of worth?"

"It's the reason that we deserve to rule over them, not hide away like so many frightened children and our master will lead us to greatness!" Bellatrix pointed out with a frown. "Oh I so eagerly await the day of our inevitable victory."

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

"He is barely capable of thought, stupid animal!" Crouch snapped. "I'm surprised he can add another couple of numbers in that head of his."

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."**

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"What's the matter, are you simply afraid of what he'll do if you say his name?" Bellatrix taunted. "You aren't even worthy of gracing his presence."

"He should be dominating them, making them respect his prominence over them," Voldemort hissed. "THAT is the way of a TRUE wizard!"

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Arabella Figg. She's a squib isn't she?" Voldemort asked and Lucius nodded.

"Yes, a sad waste of magical blood, to have her magical birthright stolen," Lucius replied.

"She's lucky she wasn't born a Black!" Bellatrix hissed. "We would have purified such weakness from our bloodline!"

"An approach the wizarding world should adopt my dear Bellatrix, corrupted branches must be preened," Voldemort said with a nod and Bellatrix blushed.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"He should have just eaten them," Greyback said with a smirk. "And maybe her for good measure."

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"Your son is a stupid muggle, and so are you. The boy is far greater than you'll ever be by virtue of his blood, even if it is contaminated," Lucius said angrily. "What gives you the right to talk about any wizard like that?"

"When I am finished with them, they WILL accord wizards with the respect they deserve," Bellatrix growled, fingering her wand.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"**

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"What is a co-"

"Just keep reading Lucius," Voldemort cut in, determined to avoid further questions.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Oh if these muggles exist, then it will already be a ruin, especially when I'm finished," Bellatrix said with a glare at the book. "But THAT will be the least of their worries."

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car..."**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..."**

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"That's almost…Slytherin in its style," Lucius commented. Voldemort simply frowned with distaste. He always hated children like that.

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Why, does he bite?" Greyback asked sarcastically.

"He should simply crucio him into oblivion!" Bellatrix said with a glare. "Teach that stupid muggle his place!"

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

Peter winced at the rat reference. What was wrong with rats?

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Sounds a lot like Crabbe and Goyle," Lucius said with a look of distaste.

"They're supposed to be wixards! Why would they resort to such primitive muggle tactics?" Bellatrix demanded and Lucius shrugged.

"Probably because they aren't very bright," Lucius suggested.

"I will have…words with them," Voldemort said with disgust. "I expect my wizards to ACT like wizards, not reduce themselves to the level of muggles."

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. **

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"I am DEFINITELY going to curse him into oblivion for that alone. How DARE he call magic 'funny business'" Bellatrix growled.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly.**

"Because you're a stupid little half-blood who doesn't know his place," Crouch said with a glare.

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Accidental magic," Lucius commented in a bored voice.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." **

There was a volley of laughter from around the table.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off **

"The unbeatable Potter hair," Peter muttered. "Stupid idiot kept messing with it as well."

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Accidental magic of course," Lucius said in a bored voice. "Stupid muggle."

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls)**

"That sounds pretty nice actually," Peter said with a look of interest on his face. He received several looks of disbelief.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"Because the muggle b$%# is too stupid to recognise magic when she sees it," Bellatrix said in a sing-song voice that disturbed almost everyone in the room. (Except Voldemort)

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

There were several gasps of surprise.

"Clearly his pure-blood roots are shining through," Lucius said sniffily. "They must be more than enough to overcome such lowly origins."

"Clearly they must," Voldemort said in agreement.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"His brains are sadly from his mudblood side of the family though," Crouch said with a look of distaste.

"Yet another reason we should avoid breeding with filth like that," Lucius commented dryly. "The REAL power should reside with those whose bloodlines make them worthy of making such decisions.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"I didn't know you could make a cabbage-smelling room," Lucius said in surprise. "Typical Figg, to live in a muggle hovel."

Voldemort wondered privately what Lucius would say about the orphanage. Then he gave himself a mental shake. What were the chances of him finding out?

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects.**

**This morning, it was motorcycles. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Good memory," Voldemort murmured.

"Probably remembering it because it was the last time he was in contact with anything approaching a civilised being," Crouch suggested.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"My cousins one does," Bellatrix pointed out. "Perhaps I should make his stupid car fly, that might make him believe. Or maybe just his son, while he watches."

"I'm biting that boy, remember!" Greyback snarled. "He's mine to claim!"

"I AM A PUREBLOOD WITCH AND WILL NOT BE DICTATED TO BY THE LIKES OF YOU!" Bellatrix screeched.

Greyback growled at her angrily, baring his teeth, but nothing more was said as Lucius pressed on with the book.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"A bit like those he might get from that old fool Dumbledore," Lucius said with a look of distaste.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"What do you expect from such a primitive animal?" Bellatrix cackled.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

"CURSE THEM, YOU STUPID BOY!" Bellatrix screeched at the book. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A WIZARD!"

"I find biting works just as well," Greyback said with a smirk.

"What do you expect, his blood is contaminated by that filthy mudblood's blood?" Lucius asked.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top,**

**Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

"The symbol of my noble ancestor, Salazar," Voldemort said with a slight smile.

"We are truly graced to be in your presence master," Bellatrix said with awe at this reminder of his lineage.

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father.**

**Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"The snake is not some performing elephant there to perform for your amusement muggle," Voldemort growled.

"Oh I am going to give him a few tricks he won't forget," Bellatrix said with gleaming eyes.

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

"No patience or wit. Why do we hide from such animals is beyond me," Lucius sneered.

"Our time will come Lucius, I assure you of that," Voldemort said.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

**It winked.**

"It clearly recognises the superior being," Bellatrix commented.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time.**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

"He speaks parseltongue? How?" Crouch exclaimed. "The Potters are more closely related to Gryffindor than Slytherin!"

"Very interesting. Continue, Lucius, we may find out more," Voldemort said firmly.

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

**"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

"HOW DARE YOU!" Bellatrix yelled, pulling out her wand. Peter drew his wand out as well.

"It's just a book, and errant nonsense at that," Lucius pointed out. "Unless you believe that it is physically possible for a mere one year old to defeat the greatest dark wizard in history?"

"Of course not!" Bellatrix snapped. "But when this is over, I will visit this-" Bellatrix paused and read the authors name, "-J.K. Rowling and MAKE her regret ever think that she could write such slanderous lies!"

"Leave her to me Bellatrix, she is mine to deal with and mine alone," Voldemort said calmly.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Hence the rather obvious title," Lucius said in a bored voice.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

"It's not even poisonous," Voldemort sneered disgustedly.

"What else do you expect from such lowly creatures?" Lucius asked.

"What indeed?" Crouch said in agreement.

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"That Potter boy is a disgrace to parseltogues," Voldemort growled angrily. "They should be SCARED of him."

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"A shame it didn't succeed then," Crouch said with a smirk.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Make sure we visit this Piers boy as well, assuming he exists," Crouch continued with a sour look on his face.

"More children for you to play with Greyback," Voldemort suggested with a smirk and Greyback grinned.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"No meals!" Peter exclaimed in shock. "But if he's anything like James, his stomach will rumble loud enough to be heard all over the house."

"Having second thoughts Peter?" Greyback asked with a gleam in his eye and Peter glared.

"No! Of course not! Only a fool would dare oppose the Dark Lord!" he protested.

"As long as you remember that," Voldemort said, looking Peter firmly in the eye.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"He should be respected and feared, not locked away in a cupboard," Voldemort hissed. "When my rule is established, no muggle will dare treat a wizard the way these muggles do!"

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

"As if any muggle invention could possibly harm a wizard!" Lucius sneered. "This boy is clearly an idiot."

"His mother's a mudblood and his father a blood-traitor. What can you expect from such a poor lineage?" Bellatrix pointed out.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"As if you would survive a killing curse from me!" Voldemort hissed.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

"STRANGE! We're not strange!" Bellatrix screeched. Crouch simply frowned and Lucius gave the book a look of contempt.

"He should respect his betters," he sneered.

"What do you expect from someone raised by animals?" Crouch asked rhetorically. "He might as well have been raised by wolves."

"Hey!"

"I didn't mean werewolves," Crouch added.

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.**

"She should be afraid when she meets ME!" Bellatrix hissed angrily. "That little mudblood-loving fool is NOTHING compared to me!"

**A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.**

"We allow far too much rubbish into our world," Lucius commented silkily as he looked at the book with distaste. "They should be purged, they are not fit to be called witches and wizards."

**A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"Apparition," several voices said together, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"Stupid muggles, they should be fearing Harry Potter, not some muggle pig!" Voldemort spat angrily. "He might be the spawn of worthless filth, but he is still superior to them."

"Well said my Lord. They will soon discover that when we are victorious," Crouch said as he took the book from Lucius and started to read the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is called fanfiction. Are you really dumb enough to think I own?

AN: This chapter is very late and I'm very sorry for that. Real life, having to re-write a large part of this chapter and writers block have all gotton in the way.

AN2: As your PM is down freefall-gypsy, I'll have to tell you that the Death eaters find out the details at the same time we do.

**CHAPTER THREE**

**THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE**

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.**

"Punishing him? They should be worshiping him!" Bellatrix hissed.

"Perhaps we're simply expecting too much of these filthy animals, my dear Bella?" Lucius suggested. "They are only muggles after all."

"When I get my hands on them…" Bellatrix grumbled and Crouch continued to read.

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Something you don't get with brooms. But I think I'll do a lot worse than knock her down," Crouch said with a smirk.

"Patience, Barty, patience," Voldemort murmured softly. "You will have your chance, I assure you. We all will, in due course."

"Oh I do so love the smell of fear," Greyback said with a gleam in his eyes. "It makes the hunt so much more…enjoyable."

"I prefer the capture. It lets me get all creative," Bellatrix said with a smirk.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Hmm. Ideal material for a werewolf pack leader. He even comes with his own pack," Greyback said with a gleam in his eye. He licked his lips. "I shall have to visit them all."

"Why bother? They're just a pack of stupid muggles?" Crouch asked and Bellatrix sniggered.

"Aww, is wittle cwouch all wowwied about the ickle muggles?" she teased, before shooting a contemptuous look at Greyback. "They're about the right level for him."

Greyback growled, baring his teeth at Bellatrix. "One of these days b#%h, one of these days," he murmured under his breath

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting. **

"HOW DARE THEY HUNT A WIZARD!" several people screamed.

"When I'm finished with them, they will learn to respect their betters!" Bellatrix hissed. Greyback simply grinned and licked his lips.

"Hunting wizard is such fun," he cackled. "They sound like they already have a lot of good practice."

"As long as you hunt the right ones Greyback, the right ones," Voldemort warned and Greyback bowed.

"Of course my Lord, your power and wisdom are unmatched," Greyback acknowledged with a bow.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be** **with Dudley. **

"I doubt even Dumbledore would stoop so low as to invite filth like that into his school," Lucius sneered.

"Bad enough he takes those mudbloods," Crouch hissed. "I doubt even my father would approve of allowing muggles come to Hogwarts."

"Only as sport and target practice, and that will not happen until we destroy Dumbledore and his ilk," Voldemort said in a low voice.

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too.**

"Given how his father turned out, I would have thought that a bad recommendation," Peter commented nervously. "He's stupid, even for a muggle."

**Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley** **thought this was very funny.**

"Lower-class filth like that is barely worth educating at all," Lucius sneered. "Only muggles would think that universal education is a good idea."

"What do you expect from animals like that?" Crouch asked rhetorically.

"All those children, ready for biting and eating and devouring," Greyback murmured, licking his lips. "Sounds like a wonderful idea to me."

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

Voldemort growled, as memories of his own past assailed him.

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." **

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"I doubt that stupid muggle is even able to comprehend what he's just said," Lucius said with a sneer. Crouch raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sure he could be encouraged to sharpen up," he said and Lucius opened his mouth in surprise. "He just needs the right…incentive," Crouch finished with an evil smile. Voldemort favoured Crouch with a smile.

"I foresee that you will do well indeed Barty. Yes, you will do very well," he hissed with amusement. "With dear Bella's teaching, you will be truly fearsome."

"Thank you my Lord, you honour me with your praise," Bellatrix said with a blush.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats,** **and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before.**

"She should have just killed the cat," Bellatrix said in surprise. "Why DIDN'T she kill the cat? That would teach the b-"

"She's a crazy old squib. Who can explain her mind?" Crouch cut in. Bellatrix scowled at him and Crouch continued reading.

**She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though** **she'd had it for several years.**

"Sounds like my Aunt Wallis, she was exactly the same," Crouch said. "Well, before I killed her anyway."

"You should have asked for my help," Bellatrix said with a gleam in her eye. "I could have made it so much more…"

"It was over a bit quickly," Crouch admitted with a look of regret, before he brightened up. "I'm sure I'll learn better watching you Bellatrix."

"Bella is one of the best and one of my most faithful servants," Voldemort boasted with a smile. "I am sure that she is an excellent example."

Bellatrix giggled in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice and she blushed vividly. Lucius, Voldemort and Greyback all smirked in amusement.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. **

"Merlin that is just…evil," Lucius commented as he shied away from the book.

"It makes me very glad that Hogwart's uniforms are black," Peter added, he too had a look of distaste on his face.

"Yet another example of our clearly superior blood," Voldemort finished coldly, even his face contorted into a hint of distaste.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. **

"You would never get a wizard descending to that level," Lucius sneered.

"Merlin no! That's what crucio is for!" Bellatrix added with a manic grin and Voldemort smiled.

**This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"Training for what?" Crouch asked in disbelief.

"As if muggles need any training to be brutish thuggish animals," Lucius sneered, before looking at Greyback with distain. "I imagine that you'd have a lot in common with them animal."

"How's young Draco these days?" Greyback challenged by way of response. "So young, so sweet and innocent…"

"Don't you DARE threaten Draco," Lucius snarled as he pulled out his wand. "Or I will make you beg for death by the time I'm finished with you."

"You don't have what it takes to stop me!" Greyback snapped back. "Just be thankful that you picked the right side!"

Crouch continued reading, before the two could tear into one another.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. **

"How anyone can believe these clearly stupid animal are superior to us is a mystery," Lucius sneered. "It's a wonder that they even bother with clothes."

"Urgh and all those fibres make for a horrible taste in the mouth," Greyback added with a look of distaste.

"I think I should enjoy paying the school a visit for a bit of practice," Bellatrix suggest with a gleam in her eyes and Crouch grinned at her.

"I think I'll enjoy watching that," he said with a gleam in his eye.

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. **

"More horrible than usual?" Lucius sneered. "Is that possible around those filthy animals? Surely not!"

"It appears that they have done the impossible and made something that smells even worse," Crouch said sardonically. "Didn't even think it was possible."

"Another example of how inferior muggles are to us Lucius," Voldemort added in a low voice.

**It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

"Dear Merlin, these animals are far more stupid than I thought possible," Crouch said with a look of distaste. Voldemort resisted the urge to gag, it reminded him far too much of the orphanage he was raised in.

"At least it's not spicy," Greyback countered with a frown. "I once ate a muggle dipped in curry," he winced at the memory, "Never again."

"What happened?" Crouch asked curiously and Greyback winced.

He fell into a vat of curry that was cooking below when I killed him and thoroughly soaked him in the stuff," Greyback replied. "Left my mouth feeling like it was on fire or something."

"Yeah, Remus is the same," Peter commented absent-mindedly and Greyback glared at him.

"Don't you dare mention that house pet to me!" he growled and Peter cowered, much to Greyback's and Bellatrix's obvious amusement.

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

"It would probably suit those disgusting animals," Lucius sneered. "They have no dress sense whatsoever."

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

Peter giggled nervously. "He's got James sarcasm," he chuckled.

"That's not a good trait," Voldemort growled and Peter suddenly stopped giggling.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"And why should he look like everybody else? He's a WIZARD, he should DOMINATE any stupid muggle school!" Bellatrix screeched.

"Do you really expect muggles to be able to show any real grace and style?" Lucius asked with a sneer. "Just take a look at how they dress, in their ridiculous fashions."

"They're muggles, what can you expect? It's why we belong as their natural leaders," Voldemort pointed out.

**Harry seriously doubted this,** **but thought it best not to argue.**

"Of course you don't. You wait for an opportune moment before striking," Crouch said with a smirk.

"Without any witnesses of course," Bellatrix added with a smile. "Revenge is a dish best served cold."

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

Greyback winced at the thought of trying to bite through old elephant skin. The last time had left his jaw aching.

"Why would…oh never mind, they're obviously too stupid to know," Crouch finished with a look of contempt.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

"Doesn't want too be seperwated fwom his wittle toy," Bellatrix mocked.

"Probably too stupid to put it down," Crouch added in a bored tone.

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

**"Make Harry get it."**

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail.**

"A wizard should do more than dodge some stupid muggle with a stick," Lucius sneered. "Clearly evidence of his inferior blood."

**Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? **

"Our enemies no doubt, those people who champion muggles and mudbloods," Voldemort said. "In other words, those too stupid to see the truth."

"No doubt my dear cousin and traitorous sister among others," Bellatrix hissed.

**He had no friends, no other relatives**

"He's related to every pure-blood family in existence, stupid boy!" Crouch hissed.

"What do you expect from a child raised by disgusting animals like that?" Lucius sneered

**- he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

"Stamp? What is a stamp?" Crouch asked contemptuously.

"What does it matter, it's only a muggle thing, not worth our time," Lucius sneered.

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms;**

"Hogwarts," Lucius sneered and Greyback licked his lips.

"Oh I would so enjoy the chance to go there and…convert a few pupils," Greyback suggested with a predatory grin.

**a lion,**

This was met with a series of boos and hisses,

**an eagle, a badger,**

"Stupid 'puffs, they're only good for cannon fodder," Crouch snorted contemptuously. Voldemort's eyes danced with amusement however as he remembered Hepzibah Smith.

**and a snake**

Cheers echoed around the room.

"The symbol of our noble leaders fine pure-blood line!" Bellatrix crowed gleefully.

"A house where truly great witches and wizards hail from," Lucius added, before looking at Peter and Crouch. "Present company excluded of course."

**surrounding a large letter H.**

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. **

**He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

"Do we have to listen to this?" Peter asked in a bored voice. "We all know what the letter says."

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. -."**

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"You would never get a wizarding family behaving like that," Lucius snorted. "He should have been told."

"What do you expect from such lowly animals. Oh I hope he does the right thing and curses them!" Bellatrix crowed with a smile.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"HOW DARE THEY!" Bellatrix bellowed. "TRYING TO DEPRIVE A WIZARD OF HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE!"

"What was that decrepit old fool thinking when he left that boy with his filthy muggle relatives?" Lucius sneered "This is EXACTLY why decent wizards avoid breeding with filth like that!"

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

"That sounds…unhealthy. Perhaps I should give you a little nip to see if you're well?" Greyback asked sardonically. "It won't hurt. Much."

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"He should try learning a few tricks from me, I would give him e thorough education in how to really kill such disgusting vermin," Bellatrix cackled.

"Bellatrix I don't think she's choking because of accidental magic," Crouch said gently and she glared at him.

"The child is supposed to have defeated the greatest wizard of our age, how can he not be the cause?" Bellatrix asked with some venom.

"If he's anything like James and his mudblood, he wouldn't have the guts," Peter said dismissively.

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

"She finally speaks," Lucius said in a bored voice. "A shame young Mr Potter wasn't choking her."

"He's a disgrace to the name wizard," Voldemort hissed. "And yet, we are supposed to believe that he defeated me."

"The book is obviously lies my Lord, why do we read them?" Bellatrix asked and the mysterious voice cut in.

"Funny enough, I am actually TRYING to help you out here, so for the love of Merlin, will you just shut up and READ!"

"I think we're annoying him," Peter said with a smirk as he pointed up at the ceiling. "If we annoy him enough, do you think he might let us out of here?"

"I'm not so sure th-" Crouch started, but suddenly a bolt of lightening hit him in the bum and he suddenly leapt into the air with a shriek of pain.

"He obviously doesn't share your sense of humour," Lucius drawled, while the others simply fell about laughing at Peter's expense.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room.**

"The ideal time to strike," Greyback suggested with a cackle. "It's a very bad idea to forget, especially if I was in the room."

"Oh I don't think ANYONE would forget you, my dear Greyback," Voldemort said with a smirk of amusement. "Not with your…particular talent for…" Voldemort paused for a moment, before looking straight at Greyback. "persuasion."

**Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"How crude," Lucius sneered. "Such stupid animals."

"What do you expect, my dear Lucius? They're muggles," Crouch pointed out.

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

"Let him read it, you stupid creatures!" Bellatrix screeched. "He's your superior, you should LISTEN to him and OBEY!"

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won,** **so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"Clearing showing his inferior bloodline. Any wizard worthy of the name would have hexed that muggle into oblivion for even trying," Lucius sneered.

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

"We have magic, you stupid muggle. What else do we need?" Crouch asked disdainfully.

"I pity any wizard who has to watch them," Peter added with a smirk.

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"If any wizard was following you, any decent wizard would have crucio'd you out of your little mind. For fun!" Bellatrix screeched. "And finished the Potter brat as well!"

"You don't really do subtle do you Bella? Sometimes you need to wait," Lucius said with a smirk. Bellatrix glared.

"They never find the bodies when I don't want them too," she protested angrily.

"Very true Bella, very true," Voldemort said with a slight incline of his head. "An example for all the wizarding world."

"Thank you Master!" Bellatrix exclaimed happily.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...**

**"But -"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"DANGEROUS NONSENSE!" Bellatrix screamed. "DANGEROUS NONSENSE! Crucio!"

Crouch threw himself at the ground as over a dozen others joined Bellatrix's curse. After several minutes, he gingerly picked up the still unharmed book and with a careful eye on Bellatrix Lestrange, he began to read again.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"Probably afraid of being bitten," Greyback suggested with a smirk.

"Or more likely, cursed," Lucius added, before shaking his head sadly. "So very sad that some of the old pure-blood lines are thinning out so poorly."

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

**"No one. it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon,**

"Don't you DARE yell at a wizard muggle!" Bellatrix screamed at the book. Crouch eyed her warily, but her wand stayed in her pocket.

**and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

**"Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

"Unbelievable. I'm surprised that they have anything approaching a decent sized house," Lucius commented.

"You have a wizard in the house, you refuse to give him the best room in your pathetic hovel and you make him sleep under the stairs when you have ANOTHER ROOM!" Bellatrix shrieked once more and Crouch wondered if his hearing would ever recover.

"It's probably the safest room in the house, under the stairs," Crouch suggested with a wince. "The house is a muggle building, it's probably so slipshod that it's in constant danger of falling down on them."

"That sounds like an interesting idea for a new sport Crouch," Voldemort said with a smile. "Something else to keep the Ministry busy."

**"Why?" said Harry.**

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. **

"Only four?" Lucius sniffed. "A pitiful hovel."

"It's a muggle house, they probably think it's rich," Crouch suggested with a sneer.

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken.**

"You can hardly expect a muggle child to be able to handle anything breakable," Lucius sneered

**The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They** **were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Do you really expect a muggle to be able to read?" Lucius asked with contempt and Bellatrix cackled.

"Only if they're as stupid as my dear cousin," she cackled

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..."**

"Why would a muggle need an extra room?" Lucius asked with a sneer. "Especially with a wizard living in the same house?"

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"If I had tried that, my mother would have crucio'd me," Bellatrix said thoughtfully.

"You would never get a wizarding child behaving so," Lucius sneered contemptuously. "Yet further proof of our superiority."

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. **

"The natural order of the world, muggles working for wizards," Lucius commented. "I wonder how long it'll last?"

"Not long enough, those muggles need to be taught a lesson!" Bellatrix said, with a disgusted look at the book.

"A lesson you will deliver after our inevitable victory," Voldemort murmured with a smile at Bellatrix. "I am sure that you will do an admirable job."

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's** **another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -'"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him.**

"Oh I'm sure that he'll run a lot faster with me behind him," Greyback said with a feral gleam in his eye. "A lot faster."

**Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. **

"Bite him, bite him!" Greyback chanted excitedly. "Unleash your inner wolf!"

"As if he would sink to your level animal," Bellatrix sneered dismissively. "He should just curse him instead."

"If it was me, I would have already intimidated him into handing over the letter," Voldemort sneered. "A clear sign of the boys lack of breeding."

"James should never have married that filthy mudblood to begin with," Peter sneered.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick,** **Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley - go - just go."**

"Preferably off the edge of a cliff," Lucius drawled and Greyback looked offended.

"Not before I've given him a good biting. It's a waste of good meat!" he protested.

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"If it's anything like James's plans, this should be fun," Peter said, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. **

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. **

"That's…actually a good plan," Voldemort said with a hint of admiration. "It wouldn't work, but…"

"I wish he'd torture him, just to see what shakes out," Bellatrix cackled with a slightly crazy look in her eyes.

"No chance of that Bellatrix, his bloodline is simply too weak," Crouch sneered. "It's what you get from interbreeding with such pointless animals."

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door - Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. **

"Ah, muggles in their rightful place," Lucius quipped with amusement.

"He should stamp his foot down, see what breaks," Greyback suggested with a smirk. "It's only a muggle after all."

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making** **sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour**

Don't you DARE shout at a wizard!" Bellatrix screeched "Or I'll crucio you out of your tiny minds!"

"To think, the Ministry seems to think that these people are worthy of any form of protection? They're clearly delusional," Lucius sniffed.

**and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.**

**Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. **

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letterbox.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

"That's never stopped Hogwarts before, why would it do so now?" Crouch asked and Lucius shrugged.

"Who can understand the minds of such stupid animals?" he replied. "Just continue and hope for someone remotely decent to turn up."

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"We're not the strange ones, you are!" Bellatrix screamed at the book once more. "How DARE you talk about your superiors like that!"

"Oh I'm sure that a visit from you would…educate them suitably," Voldemort said with a touch of amusement. "You do have a real gift for…education Bella."

"Thank you my Lord!" she replied with a blush and a giggle. "I am truly honoured."

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the letterbox they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"Canned meat," Greyback said, licking his lips. "It's a very bad idea to get struck inside when I'm about."

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. **

**Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to,** **Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"Anyone stupid enough to believe Dumbledore's side is right perhaps?" Lucius asked sardonically.

"I'd like a chat," Bellatrix said with an evil smile. "I would very much like a chat."

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -"**

"As if something like that would stop us!" Lucius sneered. "Honestly, is that what passes for civilisation?"

"What do you expect from muggles?" Crouch asked disdainfully, before continuing to read.

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

"Get your filthy hands off of him muggle," Bellatrix hissed angrily.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"Hogwarts IS persistent," Crouch said, half-admiringly. "Must be part of the Hogwarts magic."

"Well any half-intelligent being knows that," Lucius sneered. "And any half-decent wizard understands that these animals are simply not up to even that."

"We will…educate them in their folly when we are victorious," Voldemort finished.

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

"Five minutes? How can one possibly expect to be properly packed in five minutes?" Lucius asked contemptuously.

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. **

"He's a muggle, you're a wizard boy. He shouldn't look dangerous at all," Voldemort sneered.

"Proof that the Potter bloodline is running far too thin," Lucius added.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the motorway.**

**Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"You are going to have a lot more bad days when I am through with you," Greyback growled, clicking his fingers.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city.**

"Typical muggles, no sense of aesthetics at all," Lucius snorted.

"What do you expect from filth like that?" Crouch snorted, before continuing.

**Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

"Hopefully because he recognises the superior being eating at the table, I hope?" Lucius suggested and Crouch shook his head.

"Doubtful," he said.

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

"Proving that he's gone deaf as well as mad," Crouch commented sardonically. He turned to Bellatrix. "We really should pay these things a visit when we're done here."

"That's the spirit, just what we need!" Bellatrix replied enthusiastically.

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of** **a multilevel parking garage.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

"Such stupid creature. Have you only just realised?" Crouch hissed.

"He's a muggle, what do you expect?" Voldemort said in a bored voice. "Hurry up so we can leave these filthy animals behind."

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

"Oh pull yourself together. When I'm through with you, I don't want to see such a pansy," Greyback snapped.

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. "**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of** **television, then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.** **Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

"And yet you give your none magical child countless gifts," Bellatrix growled. "How dare you. How DARE you!"

"When we triumph over the wizarding world, they will earn respect," Voldemort sneered angrily.

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"What do you have to smile about, you're a muggle?" Bellatrix asked with a sneer.

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" **

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

"Leaving them nicely trapped," Greyback said, his eyes bright and he was licking his lips with anticipation.

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

"Dear Merlin, these muggles are crazy. They must have a death wish!" Crouch exclaimed.

"I don't care if they do get themselves killed, but to waste precious magical blood like that, it's a disgrace!" Lucius added.

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. **

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding,** **led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

Lucius looked slightly faint. Only two rooms! His greenhouses were bigger!

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of crisps each and four bananas.**

"How have muggles survived so long?" Crouch asked. "That might be enough for their limited minds, but not a growing wizard!"

"This filth is even more stupid than the usual brand of muggles," Voldemort sneered angrily.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shrivelled up.**

"Of course they did, they're hardly burning materials," Crouch snapped angrily.

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"That would hardly stop one of us, an owl or wizard on a broom would succeed just as well," Lucius pointed out.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle** **Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"CRUCIO!" Bellatrix screamed, pointing her wand at the book and Crouch dived for cover once more.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT? FILTH! FILTH!" she screamed. "LEAVING A WIZARD TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR WHILE YOU TAKE THE BED! CRUCIO!"

The book hit the floor unharmed and the mystery voice boomed out once more.

"You can't harm the book and the people mentioned in the book are in the REAL WORLD, well away from you until you FINISH the books. So stop trying to curse them and save it for when you're let out."

Grumbling in annoyance, Bellatrix sat down and Crouch picked up the book and continued reading.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of** **Dudley's watch,**

"How do they do that? Surely it's beyond such limited animals?" Crouch asked curiously, before receiving a few glares from the others.

**which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all,** **wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"We can hope so," Bellatrix said. "At least that would destroy those muggles and the last line of blood-traitors."

"It would be a terrible waste of magical blood, something that would not be desirable at all my dear Bella," Voldemort said with a smile. "Although your enthusiasm is commendable."

"Your wisdom is unsurpassed master," she said, bowing her head down low.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten... nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him **

"See, he already has the right attitude," Crouch crowed. "Almost eleven and he's thinking of muggle-baiting!"

"Imagine how much better he would be with a bit of teaching under me," Bellatrix added, her eyes gleaming madly.

**three... two... one...**

**BOOM.**

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"That's it," Crouch said and he handed the book over to Bellatrix. "Would you care to do the honours?"

Bellatrix snatched the book off of him and flipped to the next page.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**

"Surely nobody in their right mind would send HIM to retrieve a wizard?" Voldemort asked in disbelief.

"Who Master?" Bellatrix asked curiously and Voldemort smirked.

"Keep reading Bella, I want to see if the crazy old fool is as senile as I think," he said with a wave.

**BOOM. **

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"You're a muggle, you say EVERYTHING stupidly," Lucius sneered contemptuously. "Why does the book feel the need to state the obvious?"

"Probably even more stupid than their usual standards," Crouch suggested and Lucius's face frowned.

"Is that even possible?" he asked and Greyback chuckled.

"I can certainly try make him scared enough to try," he suggested with a smirk.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"As if some muggle…" Lucius frowned momentarily, "thing could threaten anything with magical blood."

"Ohhh, the wittle muggle wants to pway with the bwig wizards now?" Bellatrix crowed. "Does the wittle muggle want to pway?"

"What could a muggle device do that could possibly harm a wizard?" Lucius asked with a sneer.

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

"As if that would stop us," Lucius sneered.

""Never stopped me," Greyback commented dryly. "It just winds me up."

**There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH!**

"Dear Merlin, they've sent that brainless oaf," Voldemort groaned as he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Dumbledore has clearly lost his wits."

"What do you mean Master?" Crouch asked curiously, but Voldemort gestured for Bellatrix to continue.

"Continue Bellatrix, I wish to see if I'm right," he said and she continued reading.

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

"There's only one person that would do that. Dumbledore is more foolish than I thought," Voldemort murmured to himself.

"Who is it Master?" Crouch asked curiously. "Is he a great wizard?"

Voldemort laughed and waved to Bellatrix to continue.

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"He's sent the GAMEKEEPER!?" Bellatrix cackled insanely. "The brainless, idiotic, filthy oaf! Has Dumbledore gone completely crazy?"

"It's not like he was ever 'normal' to begin with," Crouch pointed out and Lucius sniffed.

"He sends a gamekeeper to collect the only heir of the Potter line? How is the boy supposed to know how to act around decent pureblood families?" he asked with a sneer.

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

"A wizard does not ask, he demands," Bellatrix said angrily. "They're muggles, they should obey without question!"

"Rubeus Hagrid lacks proper wizarding pride," Voldemort sneered. "Just like his father."

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

"At least some muggles know their place in this book," Bellatrix growled. "It's how muggles SHOULD be when they see a wizard."

"And it will be when we are victorious over the scum and filth contaminating our world," Voldemort added with a hiss.

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mum's eyes."**

"I'm surprised that there is any trace of his mudblood mother's filthy bloodline in him at all. It should have been eclipsed by the blood of his superiour, pure-blood father. Clearly a sign of the weakness of the Potter line," Lucius sneered. "No Malfoy child would ever show the slightest hint of such inferiority."

Peter winced at the description and felt a small twinge as he thought about his old friend James and Lily, who always made time for him. But it was too late to back out now.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"Must be one of those muggle animal noises," Lucius sneered.

"**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant;**

"Finally a wizard treating a muggle the way they should be treated," Lucius sighed.

"It should have come from Harry. He should learn to be a proper wizard and treat his inferiors as they deserve," Bellatrix sneered.

"He will no doubt learn," Voldemort said in a low hiss. "Give him time, I am sure of it."

**he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

"And you would know about that Hagrid, you clumsy oaf," Voldemort sneered and the others laughed.

"He is as clumsy as he is stupid," Lucius sneered in agreement. There was a round of laughter and Bellatrix continued.

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

"It can only be an improvement on the filth he's had to endure so far," Lucius snorted.

"What can you expect from such lowly creatures?" Crouch asked contemptuously.

"Hagrid is such a clumsy fool, he would probably poison him," Voldemort sneered. "He should never have been allowed to enter our society."

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"You don't need to say thank you to a giant, not even one who's half wizard," Lucius sneered.

"It's not like his feelings matter!" Bellatrix added with a hiss.

"Oh he WILL learn his place in due course," Voldemort said with a grim mirth.

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

"A position that you don't deserve you filthy half-blood," Bellatrix growled.

"These are the kind of impure fools that Dumbledore employs at Hogwart's. Standards are slipping," Lucius sneered.

"What do you expect, with that fool Dumbledore running the school. When we are victorious, things will be very different," Voldemort said firmly.

"Of course it will, the wizarding world will be ruled properly," Crouch said with a smile. "Under your wise guidance."

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Drinking on the job as well. Disgusting that he should be allowed near decent wizarding stock," Bellatrix growled, before looking at Greyback. "Exactly like you really."

Greyback growled angrily and Bellatrix's eyes widened in anger.

"You should show more respect to your betters animal," she said angrily.

"And you should be bitten. Just a little nip. You really don't know what you're missing," Greyback countered. Bellatrix's wand shot into her hand.

"Back off you filthy animal!" she snarled.

"Bellatrix, Greyback, enough bickering! You both serve me and will focus your strength on fighting our enemies and not one another!" Voldemort snapped and they both looked contrite.

"Yes Master," they both said simultaneously and Voldemort decided to continue.

"Greyback, you will have your children when we are victorious. You are the stick required to ensure…obedience. Bella, you would do well to remember that,"

"Yes master, I see you are truly greater than me," Bellatrix said, her eyes averted.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled crisp packets in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. **

"Another demonstration of wizarding superiority. And fools like Dumbledore expect us to treat them as equals, or stay hidden like my father," Crouch sneered. "What have we to fear from such stupid creatures?"

"When we have purged the wizarding world of its filth, we shall teach show the muggles their rightful place," Voldemort said. "I am sure you will enjoy it dear Bella."

"Oh I am so eagerly looking forward to it!" she squealed with uncharacteristic glee. "All those muggles to terrify, to torture and kill!"

"All those free meals," Greyback said thoughtfully licking his lips. "How could I resist?"

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight,**

"Of course it would, you great oaf!" Voldemort sneered.

**and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle,**

"Why would someone carry a copper kettle in their pocket?" Crouch asked with distain.

"Because making tea is beyond these animals of course," Lucius said distainfully.

**a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from** **before starting to make tea. **

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. **

"Any proper wizard would have brought a house-elf along with him," Lucius sneered. "Typical of the riff-raff you find at Hogwarts. Thank Merlin for Slytherin."

"We will purge our world of such filth in due course," Voldemort said with a scowl. "They will know their place then."

**Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"As if any self-respecting wizard would waste good food on a muggle," Lucius sneered. "Especially with a wizard in the building."

"As it's made by someone of such impure blood, are you sure it's actually good food though?" Crouch pondered and smirked before continuing. "After all, with giant blood in him, he's probably more likely to poison him than feed him."

"He's got a point there Lucius," Peter said with amusement and Crouch raised an eyebrow. Lucius glared at him.

"Be careful not to be too clever Crouch. I am a Malfoy and we do not suffer fools lightly," Lucius said angrily.

"And I would avoid being too threatening," Crouch countered. "You never know who will be called upon to serve our Lord and who will gain favour through our actions."

"To be honoured by you my Lord," Bellatrix crooned as she gazed lovingly at Voldemort. "That is truly an honour worth aiming for."

"You will no doubt have your chance Bella, this war is far from over," Voldemort said and he signalled for her to continue.

**The giant chuckled darkly. "Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don'** **worry."**

"It seems he agrees with you about the wittle muggle," Bellatrix said with a smirk. "Isn't that sweet?"

"Don't tempt me Bella," he hissed and Bellatrix smirked, before continuing.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful,**

"I didn't even know that was possible," Lucius said with a frown. "Dumbledore is clearly losing his mind, leaving him with those stupid animals."

"A powerful old fool who babbles on and on and should not be allowed to pass on his foolish ideas to our children," Voldemort added angrily.

"There is one good thing about him losing his marbles though," Crouch said thoughtfully.

"And what might that be?" Lucius asked. "He's still the headmaster of Hogwarts."

"Ah but he'll be far easier to defeat. And without him, we will soon finish those leaderless blood-traitors and mudbloods," Crouch said. Voldemort frowned.

"I would prefer to defeat him at the height of his powers. Let there be no doubt who is stronger," Voldemort said and Bellatrix bowed.

"Master, you could not possibly lose!" she said as she looked at him. "You are not hampered by foolish ideas about what magic is 'right' or 'wrong' and not bound by his weakness."

"Your confidence does you credit Bella, but I will face him on my terms, not his," Voldemort said with a grim smile. "A smart warrior chooses his moment."

"Of course master, your greatness knows no bounds," Bellatrix said with a loving look.

**but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

"No decently-raised wizarding child should have to," Lucius sneered.

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

"Of course!" several voices chorused.

"He's been raised by animals, what would you expect?" Voldemort asked with a sneer. "It's why we should install the natural order again."

"And then we shall see the greatness of your rule!" Bella crowed and Greyback licked his lips.

"And freer hunting for me. Truly wonderful," he said with a gleam in his eye.

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"What were you expecting, you stupid oaf?" Voldemort sneered. "He's been raised by a bunch of stupid animals, kept away from his birthright by that fool Albus Dumbledore."

"Let me at them. Please Master, let me show them their real place in the natural order." Bellatrix muttered, cracking her knuckles.

"All in good time Bella. It's just a question of…" Voldemort paused and a thoughtful expression came over his face. "timing. Good timing."

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents** **learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

"All the important stuff, you stupid boy!" Crouch snapped angrily. "You're a wizard boy! Surely you know something!"

"A wizard raised by mud-swilling animals. It's a wonder he can even talk," Voldemort said with a sneer.

"Somehow I doubt that Hagrid will be particularly happy," Peter chuckled with a smirk. "I've spent far too much time with that oaf."

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

"As muggles should when dealing with a wizard," Bellatrix sneered. "Oh if I was there, they'd be on the floor screaming."

"Cowering muggles," Greyback said licking his lips. "I do so love the taste of fear."

"Don't we all?" Crouch asked with a smirk. "Only thing they're really good for."

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

"Obviously not," Crouch drawled, "or he wouldn't be asking such stupid questions."

"I'm pretty sure that stupidity is a Potter trait," Peter said with a giggle.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

"A muggle school," Lucius sneered. "Barely worth the paper that they're written on."

"It's a wonder that anyone can teach those creatures anything worth knowing," Bellatrix sneered.

"But it's a good place to hunt. All those young throats waiting to be bitten," Greyback said, licking his lips.

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, maths and stuff."**

"Hardly worth knowing," Lucius said with a contemptuous wave of his hand. "Not the muggle stuff at least."

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

"The only world worth knowing about," Crouch added. "Not the ridiculous muggle world, which should serve us!"

"We will see to that particular problem when we are victorious Barty," Voldemort said in a low voice.

"And then the world will be as it should," Bellatrix said in a dangerously calm voice, her eyes glittering. "With those filthy muggles beneath us and those mudbloods destroyed!"

"Actually it's just his father's world. Lily is a filthy little mudblood who doesn't belong," Peter added thoughtfully.

"Filthy little thief! She deserves a far more painful death than we can give her!" Bellatrix hissed. "If I had her now…"

"No matter, I'm sure that you will have plenty of chances to do that to plenty of other mudbloods," Voldemort said with amusement.

**"What world?"**

"The one you should have grown up knowing of course!" Bellatrix screamed at the book. "The one that should rule over your filthy muggle relatives and all their kind!"

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

"It sounds like he's about to do what should have been done a very long time ago," Crouch commented with a smirk. "I do hope he teaches them their proper place in the world."

"Doubtful," Voldemort said with a snort. "Great oaf is too noble and stupid to inflict the curses they deserve."

"He might not. But I will," Bellatrix said with an evil gleam in her eye.

"I doubt that disgusting half-breed could inflict the spells with anything approaching the finesse that you could Bellatrix," Lucius added with a roll of his eyes.

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

"Famous for an act you could not possibly have achieved," Voldemort said with a sneer.

"He'll be unbearable once he reaches Hogwart's," Peter predicted with a groan.

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

"I think that's been established," Peter said with a smirk.

"Just get on with telling him you great oaf!" Lucius snapped angrily and Peter cowered slightly, much to the amusement of the others.

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. "Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

FORBID!?" Bellatrix screeched. "FORBID!? How DARE you talk to your superiors like that!"

"It's bad enough that they didn't tell him what he is," Lucius sniffed. "Such lowly creatures are clearly not our equals."

"Hagrid should use his power to RIP those stupid animals apart. He has the strength, he should USE it!" Greyback growled angrily. "What's the point of having that strength if you fail to use it?"

"That would be expecting too much of a fool who is so attached to Dumbledore, he can't see what he should be doing," Voldemort said with a sneer of contempt.

"Instead he panders and walks with those backward views shared by those blood-traitor Weasley's," Lucius said with a sneer. "Pathetic."

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

"Go on, curse him as he so richly deserves! Curse the whole lot of them!" Crouch said with excitement.

"I'm sure we could use the entertainment. Although I must admit, I don't know whether it would come from his incompetent spellwork exploding in his face, or what he does to those muggles," Lucius drawled and everyone laughed.

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

"And how would you stop him?" Peter asked in amusement. "Panic him to death?"

"Hagrid's too stupid to be panicked to death," Voldemort sneered.

"He's a Gryffindor, what can you expect?" Crouch asked rhetorically.

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

"No, a gasp of horror is what you do when facing me," Greyback said with a growl. "Hagrid is nothing compared to me."

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. **

"Instead of just saying it, REALLY boil their heads!" Bellatrix growled angrily. "Don't you have ANY wizarding pride?"

"Now, now Bella, he IS half giant. We really shouldn't expect much from his kind," Lucius sneered as he glared at the book. "He really should go back to the monsters that spawned him."

**"Harry - yer a wizard."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.**

"A wizard boy. Are you deaf or stupid?" Lucius asked with a sneer.

"He's a Potter and a filthy half-blood. Of course he's stupid," Peter suggested with a nervous giggle.

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum**

"A filthy mudblood who should pay for her crimes!" Bellatrix screeched angrily.

"We could use her for practise with our cruciatus curses," Crouch suggested with a smile and Bellatrix gave him a maniacal grin.

"Yes and together we could see just how much pain we could inflict on her tiny mudblood mind before she snaps," she finished and Crouch chuckled

**an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to **

**Mr. H. Potter, **

**The Floor, **

**Hut-on-the-Rock, **

**The Sea. **

**He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

A series of boos erupted at the mention of Dumbledore's name.

"That old fool should not be allowed to contaminate young wizarding minds!" Lucius hissed angrily. "He should be gone by now!"

"Obviously you aren't as influential at getting rid of him as you like," Bella said with amusement. "And you were SO very convinced that you were."

"With our great leader out of the way, Dumbledore's stupid ideas are unchallenged. No doubt Lucius is in Azkaban," Crouch said with a sigh.

"Of course, I have no doubt about your loyalty to our cause, my dear friend Lucius," Voldemort said in a low, hissing voice. "That is no doubt why he is still there."

Lucius winced slightly. Azkaban would NOT be pleasant.

"It is an honour to serve my Lord," he said. Greyback simply laughed.

"Yer too soft to survive in Azkaban," he sneered. "But if the Dark Lord wants to make sure you behave," he paused for a minute to lick his lips. "I'm sure I can…persuade you with little Draco."

"Don't you DARE threaten my son!" Lucius hissed. "My loyalty is without question!"

"Well in case you have any doubts…" Greyback finished with a smirk.

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

"Bl$%& cat!" Peter hissed angrily.

**Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. **

**After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"His development is clearly retarded by those muggles he lives with," Lucius sneered. "He should have been raised by proper wizarding folk."

"Doesn't even know what owls are for!?" Bellatrix screeched in disbelief.

"He's been living with filth like that, what do you expect Bella?" Lucius asked in a bored drawl.

"You're giving those muggles too much credit," Crouch added with a roll of his eyes. "An owl is far to complexed for them to use, far too advanced."

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment.**

"What the hell is an owl doing in his pocket?" Crouch asked.

"You find many strange things in Hagrid's pocket," Peter said dryly. "Trust me when I tell you that you don't want to know."

"You can find out when I rip him apart," Greyback drawled.

"Why an animal like that needs pockets is beyond me," Bellatrix commented. "He should be kept on a chain, like the animal he is."

"When we win my dear Bella, you can keep him as a pet if you like," Voldemort said and Bellatrix grinned.

"Oh the things I'll teach him when he's in my hands," Bellatrix cackled madly. "He'll soon know his true place in the world."

"And I'm sure you will do very well. You always did have a knack for…breaking in animals like that," Voldemort said with a smile.

"Thank you Master!" she exclaimed happily.

**With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

"An old fool, with foolish notions and foolish ideas!" Voldemort hissed. "One day, HE will fall by my hand."

"You are more than a match for him master!" Bellatrix said with a cackle. "How could a muggle-loving fool ever stand up to a real wizard like you?"

"By being far more powerful than his ideas deserve," Voldemort said with a sneer.

"It's disgusting, that he should have so much power," Lucius snorted in contempt.

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

"Stupid creature, what are you afraid has happened to him?" Crouch sneered.

"Maybe he thinks I'm on the loose?" Greyback suggested with a wince. "But old men like him are all stringy and…urgh."

"Don't be absurd Greyback. Dumbledore may be a muggle-loving fool, but I doubt you could get close enough to him," Lucius sneered.

"I'm sure I'd find a way," Greyback countered with a sneer. "I am very good at that.

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"Telephone? What muggle foolishness is this?" Lucius asked with a sneer. "An owl is the superior choice."

"What do you expect from a bunch of stupid creatures?" Crouch asked nonchantly.

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

"Definitely James's son, with the slightly vacant look," Peter said with a giggle.

"With his terrible breeding, it's to be expected," Lucius sniffed.

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

"HOW DARE YOU STAND UP TO YOUR RIGHTFUL MASTER, YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!" Bellatrix screamed.

"Indeed. Even if that superior is that great half-blood oaf Hagrid," Lucius sniffed as his fingers twitched over his wand.

"I wonder which one I should tear up first?" Greyback pondered a he gazed at the book and Bellatrix glared at him.

"You can have your fun when I'm finished with them," she said with a hiss and he pouted.

"But you don't leave anything good behind!" he protested. "It's no fun ripping someone apart who's mind isn't there."

"I'm sure you can help yourself to his wife first with him watching, then Bella can have her fun," Crouch suggested thoughtfully. "That would work."

"I suppose," Greyback admitted grudgingly and Voldemort nodded.

"A compromise for you my dear Bella," he said in a low voice that would brook no argument.

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

"Pfft, as if a muggle could possibly stop a wizard," Lucius sneered contemptuously. "Even for a muggle, he's stupid."

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"BAD LUCK!? BAD LUCK!?" Bellatrix screeched. "IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!"

"That fool Dumbledore should have placed him with a proper wizarding family," Lucius added with a sniff. "Like ours."

"Rumours of your families involvement with muggle markets notwithstanding," Crouch added with a smirk and Lucius flushed.

"Rumours that are unworthy of the words used to spread them. They are nothing but lies!" he hissed.

"So what does the Malfoy business deal in?" Crouch asked curiously and Lucius smirked.

"Wizarding businesses of course. Do you really think we'd lower ourselves to the level of filth?" he asked.

"As if a Black would marry into a wizarding family that had sunk so low," Bellatrix sneered with a look of contempt.

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish,"**

"RUBBISH!? HOW DARE YOU!?" Bellatrix screamed. "Crucio!"

"Bellatrix!" Voldemort cut in. "Save your anger for this stupid muggle!"

"There won't be enough of him left when I'm through with him, to fill a teacup," Lucius added coldly.

"At this rate, WE'LL be old before we get out of here!" Crouch snapped.

**said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

"A filthy little thief who didn't belong in our world, stealing our magic and secrets!" Bellatrix hissed angrily.

"A contaminant in a pure-blood line who doesn't deserve to live!" Peter added angrily with a scowl. "She deserves a painful death!"

"I could see to her. I've never tried redhead before," Greyback added with a smirk.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!**

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"Of course they were, you stupid woman!" Bellatrix hissed. "Your sister had something far greater than anything you could have ever hoped to achieve!"

"Something she had stolen from a decent wizarding child no doubt," Lucius added with a sneer. "You'd never find a Malfoy child being so weak, nor parent being so negligent."

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal **

"ABNORMAL!? ABNORMAL!?" Bellatrix screeched. "We are your natural superiors! You should WORSHIP us!"

"They will no doubt learn their place when we are finally victorious," Voldemort said calmly. "Patience Bella, patience."

**- and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! **

**Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh**

"Of course he isn't, he's just a half-brain oaf," Voldemort sneered. "My story is far too important to be told by scum like him."

"He won't learn of your greatness through that…thing," Bellatrix hissed. "He should be told by someone who understands you!"

"Such as you Bella," he asked with amusement and Bellatrix leaned closer to him.

"Exactly master," she said excitedly and Voldemort smiled.

"I imagine that he could hear the story as you slowly torture him to death?" he finished and Bellatrix nodded.

"But of course master! He cannot be allowed to live after claiming to have defeated you!"

**- but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

"You should be throwing more than a dirty look," Bellatrix hissed. "Crucio them for Merlin's sake!"

"Or just rip them apart you soft-hearted idiot!" Greyback added. "Rip their son apart in front of them and chew on his remains."

"That would make it difficult to bite him," Crouch pointed out with a smirk and Greyback snarled.

"He doesn't have the courage or the brains to use his strength!" Greyback snapped angrily.

"He works for that senile old fool Dumbledore, of course he lacks the courage and brains," Lucius sniffed contemptuously.

"He's not a coward," Voldemort said in a low voice. "He's just too stupid and deluded to apply it properly. What can you expect from such a stupid half-breed?"

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

"Of course they know his name! He is the greatest wizard in the world!" Bellatrix practically shrieked.

**"Who? "**

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"Ten years and my name still inspires fear," Voldemort chuckled with amusement. "Even Hagrid knows my victory is inevitable."

**"Why not?"**

"Because you should fear his name little boy!" Bellatrix hissed. "And you will when I've finished with you."

"I think I will take that pleasure for myself," Voldemort added quietly. "He will beg for death when I'm finished."

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad.**

"Bad," Voldemort snorted contemptuously. "Only an ignorant fools believe in such fairy tales."

"BAD!?" Bellatrix practically screeched. "My Lord is the greatest thing that has ever happened to the wizarding world!"

"He has set about returning the wizarding world to its proper way and for that he is castigated by those who should know better," Crouch practically sneered. "Men like my father and his ilk."

"I'm sure they will see the light soon enough," Malfoy said with a smirk. "Or they will fall like logs in a fire."

"Oh I hope he doesn't," Crouch hissed. "I want to be the one who kills him, begging for forgiveness under my wand."

"I think that would be most…entertaining," Voldemort said with a smirk as he remembered his own father.

**As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. **

**His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"Still feared ten years later," Voldemort said with amusement.

"Truly you are powerful my Lord," Bellatrix said with a look of longing.

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it.**

"I-t," Peter said dryly and the others looked at him curiously. "It's a joke, a play on words," he explained as he remembered Remus's explanation and he felt his stomach twist as he thought about his old friend. Remus was always the kindest one of their little gang. And he knew that Remus would have been horrified by the company surrounding him. With a shake of his head, he brought his attention back to present.

**All right - Voldemort. " Hagrid shuddered. **

**"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust,** **didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

"He was toying with you, leading you into a false sense of security," Bellatrix hissed and Voldemort smiled.

"Your confidence in my abilities is comforting, but I prefer to bide my time for the right opportunity Bella," he said and Bellatrix seemed to bloom under his attention.

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.**

"Moonshine," Voldemort said coldly. "He knew me."

"He clearly lacked the ability to appreciate true greatness master," Bellatrix replied in a low hiss. "He will learn the truth before he dies in agony."

"What do you expect from such a filthy half-breed? He shouldn't be allowed to even talk to decent wizarding stock," Lucius sneered contemptuously.

"It's a wonder he can talk at all," Crouch said with amusement. "I thought he was supposed to just grunt."

"That's exactly what he sounds like Master Crouch," Voldemort said with a chuckle.

"** Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! **

**Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"As if I would want a filthy mudblood whore and her filthy blood-traitor husband in my ranks!" Voldemort hissed angrily. "He's obviously more stupid than I thought!"

"No breeding whatsoever," Lucius snorted contemptuously. "What can you expect from a filthy half-breed like that?"

"The pure-blood and his filthy little mudblood whore," Bellatrix sneered. "Who would want them?"

"James was pretty good with his spellwork," Peter pointed out. "I was always hoping he'd see the light and marry a good pure-blood girl and see the light."

"Hard to see any light when you're dead," Greyback said with a chuckle and he was soon joined by the others.

"I'm sure a few crucio's would help him change his mind," Bellatrix suggested with an evil smile and Voldemort shook his head.

"Making him kill his dear little mudblood whore would be better…" he said with a smirk, before an almost wistful expression crossed his face. "It's a shame that I promised Severus he could have her…"

"What would he want with filth like that?" Lucius asked contemptuously and Bellatrix snorted.

"He thinks she's a pretty little mudblood. He prefers HER over me!"

"You tried your hand at seducing him Bella?" Lucius asked curiously and Bellatrix shrugged in an uncharacteristic way.

"I thought he might make for a pleasant distraction," she replied nonchantly. "But he turned me down!"

"I'm sure I can find some suitable redhead for him," Voldemort continued. "After all, it's not like he loves her, a worthless piece of rubbish like her? Don't be ridiculous!"

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. **

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old.** **He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

"Why are you crying for them, you filthy half-breed!" Bellatrix screeched. "You should be celebrating the fact that my Master is one step closer to the power he deserves!"

"You're forgetting how this story started Bella," Crouch pointed out quietly and Bellatrix scowled.

"A patent slander and I will personally break this…" Voldemort looked at the spine of the book, before continuing. "This JK Rowling, whoever she is."

"She deserves nothing less!" Bellatrix hissed angrily. "May I join you master?"

Voldemort looked carefully at Bellatrix for a moment before speaking.

"No, not this time Bella," he said calmly. "This is one of those tasks that will require me to go alone."

Bellatrix gave Voldemort a puppy-eyed look and continued reading.

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

"More foolish, more like," Lucius sneered. "A mudblood and a blood traitor."

"She deserved that for marrying him!" Peter sneered angrily. "Who does that little mudblood slut think she is?"

Greyback raised an eyebrow at his tone and surreptitiously sniffed the air before smiling slightly. That was very interesting. Very interesting.

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em.**

This was met by the sounds of cheering.

**An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then.**

"I have my reasons," Voldemort said in a low voice that nobody dared question.

**But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one **

"Of course no-one survives after I decide to kill them. I am Lord Voldemort!" Voldemort hissed coldly.

"Most of them did not deserve the honour of dying by your wand Master!" Bellatrix added feverently and Voldemort chuckled.

"Maybe not Bella, but I prefer to deal with those I deem worthy of that honour," he said with amusement. "I would hate to give our enemies the impression that I am not to be feared."

"Your wisdom is clear Master, a clear example of why you deserve our loyalty and obedience," she replied with reverence.

**except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age** **the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"My Master has a very comforting, wonderful laugh! It's so full of real power!" Bellatrix protested and Crouch chuckled.

"Unless you're one of those filthy mudbloods that he's going to kill," he chuckled. "Then I imagine that it might scare them."

"Pfft! As if they matter!" Bellatrix countered with a snort. "Any mudblood should fear the justified retribution that they receive from my master!"

"A retribution that is long overdue," Lucius added with a sneer. "And when we are victorious, we can put those stupid muggles in their place!"

"I can taste the fear already," Greyback said, licking his lips. "The fear, the flesh, the panic…lovely."

To see the look of fear and respect on their faces as a witch or wizard walks by…the natural order restored to what it should be," Bellatrix continued in a slightly dreamy voice, completely unaware of Greyback's words, or how similar they sounded.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

"If it was me, it would probably be because I'm wondering what he'd taste like," Greyback commented ruefully. "I wonder if chosen ones taste any different to normal children?"

"As if some chosen one would defeat me!" Voldemort sneered angrily and Greyback bowed.

"But of course sire, it was a strictly hypothetical question," he said oily and Voldemort favoured him with a lethal glare that made him recoil.

"I would avoid any more 'hypothetical' questions like that Greyback," he hissed in a low voice and Greyback cowered into a corner with his hands raised.

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders.**

"Senile old fool, giving him to animals like that!" Lucius sneered.

**Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

"Nothing that a good Crucio wouldn't fix," Bellatrix hissed and Voldemort smiled.

"He'd still be a filthy little muggle," Lucius said dismissively and Greyback licked his lips.

"I'm sure a nip or two could make them more…interesting," he suggested, before licking his lips again. "Or maybe just as dinner. All this talk of food has made me hungry."

"What food?" Peter asked puzzled. "Food's hardly been mentioned."

"That depends on what you classify as food," Greyback replied, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Watching them run…" he paused and sniffed the air, "It's almost like a hunt."

"Then perhaps I'd better provide some food before Greyback eats someone," the mystery voice said and with a flash, a plate appeared of the table with sandwiches piled on it. Greyback took a sniff and curled his lip in distain.

"Egg sandwiches!?" he asked incredulously. "You're giving me EGG sandwiches!?"

"Is there a problem?" the voice asked in a voice that suggested that Greyback should avoid saying anything else if he wanted to remain attached to certain parts of his body.

"I'm allergic to eggs," Greyback said and the voice sighed. There was another flash and suddenly the egg sandwiches were replaced with cheese sandwiches.

"I'm a vegetarian," the voice said and Greyback gave the ceiling a look of contempt before grudgingly eating the sandwiches.

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion –asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

"For once in his stupid life, he's actually right," Bellatrix sneered. "But for all the wrong reasons."

"I'm sure we can…correct the errors of his thinking," Crouch said with a smirk. "A good crucio or two might put him right."

"Cowering at our feet, begging for mercy," Lucius added with a cackle of amusement and the others raised their eyes curiously. It was virtually unheard of for Lucius to lose his respectable image.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

"Don't WARN him, CURSE him!" Bellatrix screamed.

"Honestly, the calibre of staff that old fool employs at Hogwarts…disgraceful," Lucius added shaking his head in disgust.

"All the more reason for you to rule over us my Lord," Bellatrix finished gazing longingly at Voldemort.

"Something we'll achieve faster if you keep reading," Greyback growled impatiently. Bellatrix glared at him and continued.

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"Questions he shouldn't have had to ask," Voldemort snapped angrily. "When we have taken the muggle world, no child will need to ask his questions."

"And that old fool Dumbledore still thinks these animals are our equals?" Lucius sneered

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died.**

Voldemort snorted with laughter at that statement.

"As if my master could die like any other wizard to a mere BABY," Bellatrix shrieked angrily.

"And I have travelled further down the path to immortality than most," Voldemort added with an amused smirk.

**Codswallop, in my opinion.**

"It's amazing, he actually got something right," Lucius said with amusement.

"Even a hippogriff can write Shakespeare, given enough time," Crouch added with amusement. "He has to be right sometimes, if only through random chance."

**Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.**

"Ah, but I am so much more than a man," Voldemort crowed proudly. "I have moved further down the path of magic than any wizard has ever dared."

"You are truly a great wizard master, one who has pushed the boundaries of magic in a way that fool Dumbledore and his kind have never dared," Crouch added with admiration and a manic gleam in his eye.

"I still think there's something to be said for a simple pleasure like ripping and biting people," Greyback said laconically.

"Ah, my dear Greyback, I have you for that so I can focus on higher things," Voldemort said silkily.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"My master's plans are far beyond you filthy half-breed!" Bellatrix snarled. "They are poetry in motion."

"And I WILL be back, I assure you of that!" Voldemort added.

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry.**

"As if a mere baby could defeat the greatest sorcerer in the world," Bellatrix snorted with contempt.

"We should visit this 'J K Rowling' and teach her the error of her ways," Crouch added angrily.

"And we will, we will. As soon as this is over, we will," Voldemort promised with a smile.

**There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all** **right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes,**

"It should be hatred, not respect you stupid oaf! He's supposed to have destroyed the greatest wizard in the world, with wisdom beyond compare!" Bellatrix shrieked angrily.

"What can you expect from such poor breeding?" Lucius sniffed. "And Dumbledore sent HIM to pick the boy up? Unbelievable!"

"Dumbledore is a wizard of mistaken and misguided views. A senile old man, hopelessly out of touch," Voldemort sneered.

**but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and** **Uncle Vernon;**

"Further proof that muggles are stupid animals who should be under our rule," Lucius sniffed. "They should be proud to have a wizard in the family, obeying his every whim."

"And we will in time Lucius, we will," Voldemort said firmly.

**if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"What's a football?" Crouch asked and Voldemort frowned.

"A muggle game, with muggle limitations and muggle foolishness," he replied as he thought back with contempt of the boys at the orphanage and their love of the game.

"No decent wizarding child brought up by proper wizards should have to know the muggle foolishness of 'football'" Lucius sneered. "No wizard should concern themselves with muggle games which are beneath us."

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

"Of course you can," Lucius sniffed. "At Hogwart's, you will be mingling with your own kind for the first time."

"Sadly under that fool Dumbledore. Do you really think he won't manipulate the boy?" Voldemort asked. "Infect him with foolish witterings about love and friendship? Of course he will!"

"Well let us hope that he meets decent wizarding stock, ones who will guide him properly," Lucius said. "Wizarding stock, like my son perhaps?"

"We can hope Lucius. I believe the Nott's have a son as well? He would probably favour such an alliance as well," Voldemort added.

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa** **constrictor on him?**

"Had he known about his birthright, I am sure he would have done much worse," Peter sneered. "All the more reason to seek our Lord's victory."

"As if he would have survived if his parents had stood against me!" Voldemort snapped angrily.

"Indeed, his filthy mudblood mother's bloodline should end with him," Bellatrix said firmly, but Crouch looked thoughtful.

"On the other hand Master, he could be a weapon in your arsenal, under your control," he suggested thoughtfully. "The Order would try to take him alive, because they believe he's innocent."

"And he'll look so much like James, they won't want to hurt him," Peter added and Voldemort smiled coldly.

"A wonderful idea Crouch, I like the way your mind works," Voldemort said with a smile and Bellatrix gave Crouch a subtle glare.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"As if you could stop him, useless animal!" Bellatrix screeched at the book.

"He doesn't even need to resort to magic. Hagrid could use his natural advantages and rip them apart and eat the remains!" Greyback added. "He should give some to Harry, get him hooked on the flesh as well."

"Hagrid is too attached to the old fool Dumbledore and his teachings," Voldemort said dismissively. "Dumbledore ideals are a threat to wizarding children everywhere."

"When we are victorious, we will purge his ideas from history!" Bellatrix added with a manic grin. "Wipe them out and any talk of equality between us and the filth!"

"And we will my dear Bella, we will," Voldemort replied firmly.

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it.**

"Why would he be grateful for going to a muggle school when he could be so much more?" Lucius asked contemptuously. "Only a complete fool could believe that!"

"As if a mere muggle could understand," Bellatrix sneered. "He will learn his place."

**I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

"HOW DARE YOU READ THE MAIL OF YOUR SUPERIORS!?" Bellatrix screamed. "HOW DARE YOU!? CRUCIO!"

The book hovered about in the air momentarily as Bellatrix's spell saturated it. Then it fell to the floor with a flump, unharmed in any way, shape or form.

"Bellatrix Lestrange, if you refuse to behave yourself, I will take your wand away and freeze you where you stand. You'll still be aware of what's going on of course, I can't have you missing out on the fun," the mystery voice said with mild annoyance. Bellatrix glared at the ceiling.

"And who would read the book if you froze all of us?" Crouch asked curiously and he was suddenly given the impression of being under the spotlight of a very dangerous being.

"Then the books will sit there until you agree to behave. Understand?" the mystery voice replied.

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

"Greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had? He's just a crackpot old fool, with foolish notions of equality with muggles and mudbloods and other filth," Lucius sneered.

"Hagrid is simply too stupid to see that," Voldemort commented nonchantly. "What can you expect from that half-giant oaf?"

"Obviously not the intelligence to handle ideas as great as yours master," Bellatrix replied with an adoring look.

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!"** **yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"How DARE you insult a wizard!?" Bellatrix hissed angrily, reaching for her wand, before stopping as she remembered what the mystery voice had said.

"The first thing that muggle has said that's accurate," Lucius commented with a look of surprise. "If for all the wrong reasons."

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," Crouch said dryly and Greyback chuckled.

"Never had much use for clocks," he said with a lick of his lips. "I find dead reckoning good enough for me."

"It's a wonder you can count that high," Lucius said dryly and Greyback smirked and licked his lips.

"It's easy when you remember the taste of everyone you've ever tasted," he countered with a smirk and Voldemort chuckled.

"Which is why you are so effective," he said with a smile that sent a shiver down everyone's spine. Well everyone except Bellatrix, who simply gave a shiver of pleasure.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley **

"Crucio him! Crucio him!" Bellatrix chanted excitedly.

"If only Hagrid was intelligent enough to cast that spell," Voldemort said with a sigh. "But a half-blood oaf like him can barely avoid setting his trousers on fire."

"Is it possible to set your trousers on fire?" Crouch asked in a puzzled voice and Voldemort chuckled.

"Oh yes. The great oaf managed to do that in his second year," Voldemort said with amusement.

"Goyle did that in his second and fifth year," Lucius added with a sneer. "They seem to be unable to grasp how to use their wands, but they have their uses."

"They do indeed," Voldemort said nodding in agreement as he inwardly chuckled at the irony of a pawn talking about 'using' others when he himself was just another wizard to be used.

**-there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

"He never was much good at transfiguration," Voldemort commented dryly.

"Pathetic," Lucius snorted. "That old fool Dumbledore is becoming more foolish by the day."

"But he is not to be underestimated," Voldemort added firmly. "Just because he's a fool, does not mean that he is any less potent."

"He's no match for you master, the greatest wizard who ever lived," Bellatrix said with an adoring look on her face. Voldemort smiled and shook his head.

"My dear Bella," he said as he looked at her and she shivered with pleasure under his gaze. "I will take him down in due course. But I will do it on my terms. I would prefer to guarantee total victory and not a pyrrhic one."

"You are far too great a wizard to have a pyrrhic victory master," Bellatrix said with a look of adoration and Voldemort smiled.

"Which is why I pick the time and place for my battles," he replied.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

"A terrified look over a botched piece of transfiguration? He should have much more to be afraid of!" Bellatrix hissed angrily. "And he will when I'm finished with him. How DARE he not bow down and praise the wizard in their midst?"

"It shows everything that's wrong with the wizarding world today," Lucius sniffed. "Too much tolerance and not enough control over our inferiors."

"Proof that our vision-MY vision is the way to fix the wizarding world," Voldemort added with a hiss. "Why that fool Dumbledore insists that these creatures are our equals, I don't know."

"Old age. It slows people down, impedes their intelligence and takes away their killer instincts," Greyback said with a growl.

"Perhaps Greyback, but his mind is as sharp as ever, except for his foolish ideals," Voldemort said coldly. "I hope you are not making implications about myself?"

"Of course not master, you are far greater than that," Greyback replied and Bellatrix pointed her wand at him in a threatening manner.

"Just make sure you understand that dog!" she hissed and Greyback growled.

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. "Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

"True, they are little better than pigs really," Lucius commented and Greyback smirked.

"They squeal like them to," he added and Bellatrix frowned.

"They're far less useful than pigs. A pig would be a step up for him," she said distastefully. "He should consider himself lucky to receive any such attention from a wizard."

"Oh I don't know," Greyback replied licking his lips. "Pigs don't have the same look of terror on their faces when they realise that they're lunch."

"And you will have plenty of free reign to hunt muggles when we are victorious. You can encourage the muggles to behave themselves," Voldemort said with a smirk and Greyback chuckled.

"I'm sure I can always pick up a few 'misbehaving' muggles," he replied with a smile.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job.**

"Why isn't he allowed to do magic?" Crouch asked and Voldemort chuckled with amusement.

"He was expelled," he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Because he was blamed for something I did, something I framed him for."

"Your genius shows through at an early age master indeed," Bellatrix said adoringly.

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

"The Dark Lord has just answered that you stupid boy!" Peter replied with a sigh of exasperation.

"He's in a book Peter, he can't hear you," Crouch pointed out and Peter blushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry, got carried away," he muttered.

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

"No my Lord is a great man. Dumbledore is just an old fool who holds us all back!" Bellatrix hissed.

"And you see now, how Dumbledore manipulates the simple-minded folk around him?" Voldemort said. "He makes Hagrid feel grateful for giving him a role that is above his station."

"All the more reason as to why he is unsuitable to be headmaster at Hogwarts," Lucius sneered angrily. "His filth should not be allowed to contaminate the minds of our children!"

"Good purebloods will have to learn in secret that which they should learn openly. It's a disgrace. And one we will fix after our victory," Voldemort said firmly.

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"Because of me," Voldemort answered proudly.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Dormice, urgh," Lucius sniffed contemptuously. "That man has no breeding."

"No breeding and no place mixing with decent wizards," Crouch added in agreement. "Why he's barely human. Surely Dumbledore could have picked someone with better breeding?"

"And he doesn't use his natural talents properly," Greyback added with a growl. "That fool has no idea what he should be doing, terrifying and intimidating his foes."

"Greyback, would you like to take the next turn?" Bellatrix asked sardonically. "Unless the longer words are too much for you?"

Greyback snatched the book out of her hands and began reading the next chapter.

AN: I apologise for leaving this so long, I'll try not to leave the next chapter so long.


End file.
